Thursday, August 20, 2009

Last night Jon Garland became the latest and greatest MLB player to clear the waiver wire. The Diamondbacks have garnered two things from this move. They A) Now know that nobody thinks Jon Garland is worth the money that they are currently paying him and B) they can trade Garland to any team that may want him.

The Waiver Wire as a whole is an interesting concept. A team gets the opportunity to put a player on the waiver wire and see if anybody claims him. If no one does, they are free to do whatever they want with the player. If someone claims him than they can either negotiate a deal with the claimed team for return pieces, or they can pull the player off the waiver wire and return them to their roster.

What if this played out in the real world? I think it could lead to some very interesting behavior. Could you imagine how quickly Ken Lewis would clear the waiver wire? The real question is how much of his salary would they have to pay off in a deal and what could they get in return.

What if they did this to the common employee like you or I? What if my company put me on the waiver wire and I was claimed by IBM? Would my company just decide to dump me? I'm guessing yes. Maybe they'd ask for a chicken cutlet sandwich in return.

How about you? What do you think would happen to you if your company through you on the waiver wire? Would you clear waivers because you're overpaid or because no other company knows who you are? Would you get claimed and traded for?